Nationwide Kohl’s Outage Cripples Checkouts, Leaves Shoppers Stuck

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, OHIO — A nationwide systems outage at Kohl’s has disrupted in-store checkouts for several days, leaving some Northeast Ohio shoppers unable to complete purchases and employees without clear guidance on when normal operations will resume. At the Kohl’s store in Highland Heights, an employee at the entrance on Tuesday told customers that “all of our systems are down except for self check-out and that is credit and debit only.” Shoppers who can pay by card have still been able to use self-checkout, according to information gathered at the store. Purchases tied to the in-store Sephora, though, could not be processed, according to employees. At the Highland Heights location, Amazon return services were still functioning even as other internal systems were not, staff said. Employees at the Highland Heights Kohl’s location said the outage affecting Sephora operations began Sunday morning. “I didn’t think we were affected until someone asked me to check out a customer and sure enough, it wouldn’t let me,” a Sephora associate at the Highland Heights location said. Staff at multiple stores, including Highland Heights, Bainbridge, and even several stores we were able to contact in other states like New York and Pennsylvania, told Cleveland 13 News that the disruption appeared to be affecting point-of-sale systems and that stores were unable to operate normally. Employees said they were confused by the lack of updates and had not been told the cause of the problem or when it will be fixed. A customer at the Highland Heights store said she had experienced issues as far back as Sunday. An employee there also indicated the systems had been having problems since Sunday, Jan. 4. Cleveland 13 News attempted to contact Kohl’s corporate offices for comment Tuesday. Calling the corporate office and selecting the option to reach an operator led to a repeating automated prompt that did not transfer the call to a person, according to the reporting. Online outage trackers showed increased reports of disruption Tuesday, with issues centered on checkout, according to data cited from the sites “isitdownrightnow” and “Downdetector.” The information provided indicated 94% of reports involved checkout issues and 6% involved the website. Employees told Cleveland 13 News the outage is affecting all stores nationwide. In a call to a Kohl’s store in Brooklyn, New York, an employee said the system “hasn’t worked since we opened and we don’t know when it will be fixed.” The employee said staff had asked for updates but had not received any, adding, “I hope it’s fixed by the end of the day.” In Northeast Ohio stores, employees said they were trying to stay busy by cleaning and organizing while waiting for systems to return. Customers, they said, have expressed frustration and disappointment when unable to complete purchases. As of noon Tuesday, Jan. 7, Kohl’s had not posted public information addressing the outage, according to Cleveland 13 News reporting. Around 10 a.m., Kohl’s Facebook page posted a promotional video encouraging customers to shop, drawing comments from users asking about the disruption. “What’s going on with the network? Everything is down. What’s the projected time for it to be back up,” wrote Chelsea Dickison in a comment on the post. “Registers are down nationwide?” wrote Sarah Koss. The cause of the outage remained unclear Tuesday based on information provided by store employees and the absence of a public statement from Kohl’s. -------------------- At Cleveland 13 News, we strive to provide accurate, up-to-date, and reliable reporting. If you spot an error, omission, or have information that may need updating, please email us at tips@cleveland13news.com. As a community-driven news network, we appreciate the help of our readers in ensuring the integrity of our reporting.